California State Office Building, O Street

Government office building offers sustainable future for downtown Sacramento

As one of the state’s largest Sacramento-area building projects of the new millennium, the State of California’s Department of General Services (DGS) has been taking steps to reimagine their aging urban office buildings, thereby improving infrastructure while supporting the revitalization of downtown Sacramento. Included in this plan is the replacement of the vacant California Department of Food and Agriculture Annex building, located in the very heart of Sacramento’s city center.

Our team worked with the State to plan a modern, high-rise office building, which will be home to 1,150 employees of the Health and Human Services Agency, Department of State Hospitals, and Department of Developmental Services. Once built, the 360,000-SF O Street project will include office and meeting space, a dining area open to the public, an employee fitness center, and parking. An attractive pedestrian plaza and street-level retail space will integrate the project within the neighborhood and create a sense of community. The building is designed with employee wellness in mind, including an emphasis on natural daylight, providing clean, filtered outside air, and the use of solar shading to minimize glare and thermal hot spots.

Sustainability also served as a guiding principle. We established design criteria that would make the new building the first large scale urban Zero Net Energy/LEED Gold Platinum 4.0 building in the country. Our team established multiple critical performance criteria, including energy consumption targets, structural optimization, and workplace efficiency. A photovoltaic array on the roof will provide solar power to maximize on-site renewable energy, supplemented by off-site solar energy sources. The building will also use 60 percent less water than a typical office building of its size.

Besides the sustainable advantages, this new building will play a major role in improving the working conditions of thousands of state employees, providing improved workplace environments to fulfill their missions.